A Chronological History of MannKind's Missed Partnership Promises

Let's wind back the tape more than 9 years to documents the many instances in which MannKind executives made promises about partnering the inhaled insulin Afrezza.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- MannKind (MNKD) acolyte and Seeking Alpha contributor "Think Long Term" operates under the delusion that Al Mann and his minions are in the driver's seat when it comes to securing a marketing partner for the Afrezza inhaled insulin device.

COO Edstrom made it clear that MannKind is in serious negotiations with multiple potential partners and many of these companies are currently in the diabetic market. Knowing that the diabetic market is controlled by 3 main Big Pharma companies, it could be concluded that Big Pharma is very interested in Afrezza. He also made it clear that the company was NOT in a poor cash-strapped negotiating condition, where it needs to take any deal available. In turn, this means the company has negotiating power when it comes to Afrezza, and it will certainly take its time and get the best deal available.

Reality check. Here's what Edstrom actually said on June 12, at an investor conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs:

Okay. Well, yes, we are certainly involved in discussions with a number of companies. Some of them are involved in insulin and insulin -- or sorry, in diabetes and diabetes management, I should say there, with global reach and also with local reach. We, at this point in time, would expect that probably, I'd say, within, say, 6 to 8 weeks following the PDUFA date, we hopefully will be in a situation where we can finalize a partnership. The structure of the partnership, you could say it could be anything from a traditional kind of royalty base to a profit sharing to that in combination with potentially co-promotion arrangements. Depending on the -- whether it's a North American or a global partnership, those parameters will change a little bit. But our expectation is that we'll hopefully -- we can bring potential partner groups together, and certainly the label will be an important component for them in terms of making the final decision. That's why we believe that a few weeks after the PDUFA date, hopefully, we'll be in a situation to make a final choice and negotiate it.